Peskov did not comment on Kiselev’s data on Prigozhin’s financing

The press secretary of the President of Russia, Dmitry Peskov, did not comment on the data of the host Dmitry Kiselev about the allegedly received 1.7 trillion rubles from the state by Wagner PMC and Concorde.

“I will also leave this without comment. This should be addressed to Kiselyov, to the authors of the program,” said the Kremlin spokesman.

On July 2, Kiselev on the air of the Vesti Nedeli program on the Rossiya 1 TV channel declaredthat Wagner, businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, received more than 858 billion rubles under contracts concluded with the state, and the Concord holding provided services worth 845 billion rubles. For how long the businessman allegedly received this money, the TV presenter did not specify.

On June 27, Russian President Vladimir Putin during a meeting with the military informedthat the maintenance of PMC “Wagner” was fully provided by the state – for the year the authorities paid the military company over 86 billion rubles. Then he clarified that this amount included cash support, incentive payments, as well as, additionally, insurance payments in the amount of 110.17 billion rubles.

“At the same time, the owner of the Concord company [холдинг Евгения Пригожина] through “Voentorg” <...> earned from the state, supplying food and providing catering services to the army, 80 billion rubles,” the president noted.

On the night of June 24, an armed rebellion was attempted in Russia. Then the Wagner occupied Rostov-on-Don, after which they announced the advance of troops towards Moscow. The day before these events, Prigozhin announced a strike on the rear camps of the company, blaming the army for this. Later, the FSB opened a criminal case against Prigozhin under the article on armed rebellion.

In the evening of the same day, the Kremlin reported on the agreements reached with the founder of the PMC. Prigozhin agreed to take measures to de-escalate the situation after negotiations with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. He announced the return of fighters and equipment to field camps. The criminal case against the businessman was later dropped.